Luna Innovations grows fourth-quarter revenues

Luna Innovations Inc. grew its fourth-quarter revenues by 15 percent as it saw a large boost in its product and license revenues.

Fourth-quarter sales were $8.5 million, compared with $7.4 million during the same period the year before. Product and license revenues grew 128.5 percent to $3.1 million while technology development fell 10 percent.

Net income for the quarter was $24.9 million mostly because of reductions in costs associated with litigations reserves related to a settlement with Hansen Medical. Without the benefit, the company had a net loss of $1.7 million compared with $2.2 million the year before.

“We have started to see some recovery in our product and license business segment which, coupled with our operating expense reductions, has resulted in a significant improvement over the fourth quarter of last year,” CEO Kent Murphy said in a statement. “With the Hansen litigation and Chapter 11 proceedings behind us, we look forward to focusing all of our resources and attention on activities that bring long term value to our shareholders.”

For the year, revenues fell 6 percent to $34.6 million and the net loss increased to $20.4 million because of reorganization costs and expenses associated with its settlement with Hansel Medical.

Luna expects total revenue of $35.5 million to $38 million for 2010 and a loss of $2.8 million to $3.5 million.